[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER KUUGA EPISODES 7 - 8



There're two stories in this two-parter, an investigative thing with Ichijou and (barely, barely) Sakurako, and an emotional thing with Godai and a Sad Girl. They intertwine at the end in the only way they could, with a monster exploding, but the journey to get there was a little rough.

Some of it's down to how isolated the stakes are in each story. Ichijou is trying to track down a Killer Bee, to stop a string of deaths. (So many deaths! Nearly Showa-level civilian casualties!) Meanwhile, a girl is sad that her dad is dead (All Dads Are Dead) and no one really cares as much as she does. (To be fair, Jean was being a bit of an asshole. Read the room, Jean!) There's probably a way to get those stories connected earlier on, or a way to thematically link the Killer Bee problem to the All Dads Are Dead problem, but Kuuga decides to just keep them siloed. Ichijou tracks down the Killer Bee on his own, while Godai tracks down the Sad Girl on his own. They literally run into each other on the beach to end the story. Godai's more-or-less wrapped up the Sad Girl story, then he wraps up the Killer Bee story. It's not even like one solution helps him with the other problem, there's nothing that connects the one story to the other. It's just two stories strung out across two episodes. Weird. Weird choice.

Each story is... collectively, they're okay at best, but it's definitely got some ups and downs as individual plots. If you turn your brain off, you'll coast through them, but they're only mildly diverting. The first Killer Bee/Kuuga fight has some fun moments, and a new form is always a plus, but there's only maybe five minutes of Kuuga across these episodes. The finale is about a minute, maybe? That leaves Godai with, honestly, a nothing plot about a Sad Girl. She's sad, then she runs off, then we get to see in excruciating detail as Godai checks everywhere in Japan for her, then he finds her, then he tells her her dad wouldn't want her to be sad, and then she isn't? The end? It's so, so far to go for absolutely no nuance. Godai's a fun character, and he's charming in his puppy-dog enthusiasm, but there's just nothing there for a story. The Ichijou plot, as always it seems, is the tighter story, with more engaging a-to-b-to-c plotting. Things happen, there's danger, Ichijou 90% saves the day, it's solid. It's a solid, if basic, story. Forgettable.

These episodes... eh. If they fully committed to Ichijou (and remembered Sakurako existed), I'd enjoy it. If they found a way to make Godai more active and integral, I'd enjoy it. Having just enough Godai to take away Ichijou's successes and not enough to make Godai matter, it's not a great mix. The way scenes work but stories don't, that's a bummer.